They are really scared shitless that with more places to spend your sports entertainment dollar, that they will have to invest and become a winning organization or be the fourth most (oops, forgot the Soccer team) fifth most popular team in the City.

They have been doing the minimum to retain fans for a long time, competition worries them.

its sad that a farm team is trying to stop your local residents from enjoying world class basketball and hockey because they cannot put a competent team together for what they believe to be a cost effective investment for entertainment and a return in sales profits. i watched them play my blue jays last night...both teams were terrible.

too bad felix hernandez doesn't like the basketball, he is pretty much the only bargaining chip the mariners have to listen too

I really cannot fathom how an organization who's stadium the VOTERS opposed, but got it anyway with 80% public funds can bitch about a privately-funded stadium being built. It just defies all rationality.

God I hate the Mariners. How can they not realize how bad they are making themselves look? This has to be one of THE STUPIDEST franchises in sports history.

Jase wrote:I really cannot fathom how an organization who's stadium the VOTERS opposed, but got it anyway with 80% public funds can bitch about a privately-funded stadium being built. It just defies all rationality.

God I hate the Mariners. How can they not realize how bad they are making themselves look? This has to be one of THE STUPIDEST franchises in sports history.

If they had a clue on anything you would think after ten years they would figure out that the run with Lou and Pat is over now?

To Be P/C or Not P/C That is the Question..........Seahawks kick Ass !!!! Check your PM's, Thank you for everything Radish RIP My Friend. Member of the 38 club.

Chris Hansen is a pretty exceptional guy. Talking to him you would have no idea he was that fucking rich (and he is, that fucking rich). From talking to him a few months back he seemed to think that getting a new franchise was a serious possibility in 3 years (if no one moved). This guy is in it for the long haul and loves Seattle.

I'm glad they have portrayed him the same way in the media as my brief interactions with him.

I enjoy ruining threads by making them about personal attacks and then commenting about how personal attacks make the other person's argument invalid.

Last night on King 5 news there was a story about why are the Mariners leading the charge to not have the Arena approved.

The Mariners would not be interviewed but the story speculated that it due to Hansen possibly owning two teams and creating a TV Network that would compete with the Mariners who are planning on creating one. In other words again they are afraid of competition and are even to chickenshit to respond on air about the situation.

They are intimidated by him plain and simple, he has more money, more backers locally and will become more of a local influence.

To Be P/C or Not P/C That is the Question..........Seahawks kick Ass !!!! Check your PM's, Thank you for everything Radish RIP My Friend. Member of the 38 club.

Aaron Levine on QitupSports last night was ripping the M's and Howard Lincoln, it was great!Softy and Ian on KJR were rippping Lincoln as well! I thinking of packing up all of my M's gear and sending it to Howard the putz, since I am starting to really hate the M's org!

Want to hate the Mariners and Howard Lincoln even more? Read today's blog post from Brian Robinson of SonicsCentral and Arena Solution:

There have been lots of places this whole experience have taken me that I haven’t particularly enjoyed. As a lifelong fan of area sports I am deeply saddened by the Mariners position. As they continue to show that their opposition has no boundaries I grow more and more disturbed by Howard Lincoln’s ruthless belief in territorial entitlement.

It is difficult to summarize the relationships involved in the Mariners efforts to prevent the Sonics from returning and sharing the market.

Pete VonReichbauer was one of the few Seattle area leaders who personally knew Clay Bennett prior to the teams sale and vouched for his character to former Basketball Club of Seattle owners at the time they sold the team to OKC.

Pete VonReichbauer frequently bcc’s Howard Lincoln on his arena related correspondence and spends a good deal of time at Lincolns personal residence. The two are close friends friends since the Safeco Field day’s when a group of former Booth Gardner staffers rose to local prominence.

This group included Jim Kneeland of Pacific Public Affairs who was Gardners Press Secretary. Booth Gardner’s stepmother was a member of the Blethen family who own and operate the Seattle Times.

Pacific Public Affairs went on to represent the Mariners for years as well as being the public affairs company of the Seattle Times.

PPA was referred to represent Clay Bennett when the sale to OKC occured. Everybody acknowledges that Frank Blethen of the Seattle Times also had a relationship with Bennett prior to the sale.

PPA and another agency, Cocker Fennessy have emerged as the leading opponents of the arena, leading the drive of PR against it. Rick Cocker is another former Mariners PR Spokesperson.

Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani was invited to join this entire group with Lincoln in the owners box at Mariners opening night. Lincoln has since hidden behind the ports public benefit arguments and using Yoshitani as a face for his own anti-arena efforts.

I could go on all day with this. There is much more.

Having seen the lengths that Lincoln will go. Having heard the stories of his aggressive efforts to work the wealthy backrooms. Knowing that he was willing to actively and aggressively lobby the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Sports Commission to not support the returns of this franchise I have to question if there are any boundaries which he would not cross. He wants a bigger chunk of the market for himself and is willing to cross any lines to get there.

I would never have asked this question before but think that it deserves asking. If he was willing to do all this we have to consider :

Is there reason to believe that Howard Lincoln could have directly participated in efforts to block the Sonics previous arena efforts before the sale to the PBC?

Even worse:

With this questionable moral compass could he have directly conspired with the Clay Bennett to run a competitor out of town?

At this point I wouldn’t put it past him. The thought of it is deeply disturbing.

I hate Howard Lincoln more than ANY Seattle sports upper management figure ever. Not including the ones who tried/succeeded in moving teams (Bennett/Behring/Smulyen).

Hell, on second thought, I dunno. I actually think I might hate Howard Lincoln more than I hate Clay Bennett. At least Bennett screwed us and left. Lincoln has been screwing us for over a decade and continues to do so, staring us in the face while doing it. Not only in what he's doing to the sports fans of the area in trying to stop us from getting more teams. But also in how he's run the Mariners. If Howard Lincoln were to get hit by a bus and die, I'd feel ZERO remorse.

"KeyArena is dead and done the day the new arena opens," said state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, whose district includes Seattle Center and Lower Queen Anne. "The language to study KeyArena punts on any meaningful commitment to the future of Seattle Center."

Carlyle isn't alone in that critique.

Members of the Seattle Center Advisory Commission say the new arena would "devastate" KeyArena, throw its existing business plan into doubt and leave Seattle Center without one of its major draws.

Revision of deal sought

They are calling on the City Council, which will vote Monday on the revised arena agreement with investor Chris Hansen, to amend the deal once more and allocate additional resources to Seattle Center.

Anyone remember a town hall type thing where team representatives from Seahawks and Mariners were invited and only the Seahawks showed up in support, and the Mariners didn't seem to give a rats ass? that thing that Seatown posted kinda brought back that memory for me.

According to Softy, signatures for a public intiative to overturn the vote will be started on Monday funded by the Ms and others. According to Softy, this is coming at the direction one person with the Ms organization. And it’s not Chuck Armstrong.

It's been said before, but holy hell they are dead to me. How stupid do you have to be to pull something like this? What level of arrogance do you have to be at to be against what a majority of your fans want? Screw them.

----------------------------"Plus I hate the seattle stadium the **** place is too loud, gave me a headache watchin the game." ~ Some 9er fan

According to Softy, signatures for a public intiative to overturn the vote will be started on Monday funded by the Ms and others. According to Softy, this is coming at the direction one person with the Ms organization. And it’s not Chuck Armstrong.

It's been said before, but holy hell they are dead to me. How stupid do you have to be to pull something like this? What level of arrogance do you have to be at to be against what a majority of your fans want? Screw them.

The fact that it's a person within the organazation and they won't come out publicly shows how coniving and chickenshit this whole attempt is and has been, going back to another post here I would not be surprised if they were involved in the sale of the Sonics to Bennett creating some kind of access or information to the lawsuit in his favor by possibly leaking the Slade Gordon information to their representation.

Oh if not Armstrong the who is left Howard Lincoln correct, thats the only other person with that much leverage outside the primary owner.

Last edited by chris98251 on Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To Be P/C or Not P/C That is the Question..........Seahawks kick Ass !!!! Check your PM's, Thank you for everything Radish RIP My Friend. Member of the 38 club.

It's sad that I now openly root against one of my childhood teams to fail miserably, but they have forced my hand. By jerking the fans around for the last decade and then this, they have shown themselves to be the enemy. And given the course of events that have happened, it wouldn't surprise me if they had a hand in originally ushering out the Sonics, which pisses me off even more.

----------------------------"Plus I hate the seattle stadium the **** place is too loud, gave me a headache watchin the game." ~ Some 9er fan

SeaTown81 wrote:I hate Howard Lincoln more than ANY Seattle sports upper management figure ever. Not including the ones who tried/succeeded in moving teams (Bennett/Behring/Smulyen).

You left out Bud Selig. He stole our Seattle Pilots, had them make a right turn on their way back from spring training and not stop until they reached Milwaukee. Totally out of the blue, not one good Seattle-related reason for it. The other owners were so impressed they made him commissioner... What a bunch of putzes. Seattle sued MLB and got awarded the Mariners franchise.

Throwdown wrote:I cant do it anymore, the Mariners need to go. YEP I said it, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and don't make a stink about it, just LEAVE! Maybe we can put Safeco to better use than they ever could.

I can't do it anymore, I've put anything I owned that had Mariners on it in the trash, I hope they fail from here to eternity.

This is an absurd overreaction.

People need to get a grip and not hate a team or especially wish for it to move because of the actions of guys up top. If you can completely abandon all ties to a team because of the actions of the higher ups, it makes little sense that we're still so attached to the Sonics after Schultz and Bennett screwed the city. A team is bigger than the temporary suits, so let's get back to reality here.

Wow... just when I thought I couldn't be more disappointed in the Mariners organization! Can we close the roof on Safeco for good and reconstruct the thing to support an NHL/NBA team? I'd prefer an attempt at that rather than watch the craptastic product the M's keep throwing out there.

Throwdown wrote:I cant do it anymore, the Mariners need to go. YEP I said it, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and don't make a stink about it, just LEAVE! Maybe we can put Safeco to better use than they ever could.

I can't do it anymore, I've put anything I owned that had Mariners on it in the trash, I hope they fail from here to eternity.

This is an absurd overreaction.

People need to get a grip and not hate a team or especially wish for it to move because of the actions of guys up top. If you can completely abandon all ties to a team because of the actions of the higher ups, it makes little sense that we're still so attached to the Sonics after Schultz and Bennett screwed the city. A team is bigger than the temporary suits, so let's get back to reality here.

It might be an over-reaction by the poster by I clearly understand the frustration with the ass clown that is Howard Lincoln. I only go to a game if I get free seats, free parking, and dont spend a dime at the ballpark. Thats been my MO for the past 5 years. My motto was if the M's were having a hard time finding their wallet to bring top tier talent in, then I was going to have a hard time finding my waller to buy tix and team related mechandise.

Now after the crap that Lincoln is pulling trying to block the arena I wont go to a game until his is gone even if I have free tix.

Throwdown wrote:I cant do it anymore, the Mariners need to go. YEP I said it, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and don't make a stink about it, just LEAVE! Maybe we can put Safeco to better use than they ever could.

I can't do it anymore, I've put anything I owned that had Mariners on it in the trash, I hope they fail from here to eternity.

This is an absurd overreaction.

People need to get a grip and not hate a team or especially wish for it to move because of the actions of guys up top. If you can completely abandon all ties to a team because of the actions of the higher ups, it makes little sense that we're still so attached to the Sonics after Schultz and Bennett screwed the city. A team is bigger than the temporary suits, so let's get back to reality here.

It might be an over-reaction by the poster by I clearly understand the frustration with the ass clown that is Howard Lincoln. I only go to a game if I get free seats, free parking, and dont spend a dime at the ballpark. Thats been my MO for the past 5 years. My motto was if the M's were having a hard time finding their wallet to bring top tier talent in, then I was going to have a hard time finding my waller to buy tix and team related mechandise.

Now after the crap that Lincoln is pulling trying to block the arena I wont go to a game until his is gone even if I have free tix.

Oh no doubt. I'm all for people opting to boycott the Ms until new ownership takes over, I doubt I'll go that far, but it's a perfectly reasonable response to their actions (I'd actually advise boycotting their sponsors and telling them why you're doing so). However, I think a line gets crossed when someone declares they're forever done with the team and wish to see them relocate. At that point you're putting your anger and frustration ahead of the hearts of the fans of that team. Whether they suck or not, some people grew up with the Ms as their team, some people grew up idolizing Mariner players, and I'm one of them. Luckily the actual Bring Back Our Sonics and Arena movements aren't going all Taliban on the Ms, because that'd be a disastrous tactic. Let Lincoln and his cronies be the only ones willing to pit their interests against those of the community, let them be the villains. I get the anger, I feel it too, but let's be the adults, we have been throughout this entire process.

Hawkstorian wrote:It would suck to take an NHL team from a city like Edmonton that really values it.

Yea, that would be bad juju. Wouldn't want that. I'd feel better with a team like Columbus, but an expansion team would be my preference by far. Expand the league to 32 just like the NFL and put a team here and in Q City again.

World Champion Seattle Seahawks football. It's an addiction, and there is no cure.Les Norton - gone but never forgotten. Rest in blue and green peace, my friend.

Hawkstorian wrote:It would suck to take an NHL team from a city like Edmonton that really values it.

If this isn't a case of using another city to leverage a better deal then I don't know what is. If the Oil leave the city there would be a mad rush to move a team or put an expansion franshise there but the city would have to pay even more for a stadium as well as a possible expansion fee. Katz has the city over a barrel because the lease at Rexall is up in 2014 and it's already been ruled unsuitable for the franchise by the league.